The Blackbuck
Logo of MNS: The Blackbuck
Photo by P. Ramanan
From the website of Prakriti, IIT Madras Wildlife Club
The beauty of the antelope kingdom and the quintessential antelope of India - the blackbuck are one of the original inhabitants of the Coromandal coast. They are animals of open grasslands dotted with bushes and scrub jungles. Blackbuck are quite well known for their speed (70 miles per hour). When the cheetah became extinct in India, there were virtually no predators for the blackbuck. However, their declining numbers in India shows that the problem lies elsewhere.
At the beginning of twentienth century, thousands of blackbuck could be seen in the valleys and open grasslands of India. Due to heavy poaching and habitat loss, blackbuck populations have been decimated and now exist in very few areas in India. Blackbuck have been listed as an endangered species and is included in Schedule I of Indian Wildlife Act.